Increasing biotic interference and depletion of the prey-base of tigers has spelt doom for the future of the King of the Jungle in the Simlipal tiger reserve, say experts.

The pugmark-based headcounting of tigers and leopards has revealed that the population of the Panthera tigris has remained more or less static during the 1990s, suggesting that the ecological space suitable to them has shrunk in the sanctuary. Progressive increase in human population inside the sanctuary, encroachment and the spread of agriculture have caused ecological degradation in large tracts of vegetation in the tiger habitat.

The tiger population, which was 30 when the first all-India tiger census was conducted in 1975, just two years after the launching of Project Tiger, had registered a steady increase and shot up to 93 in 1989 under the protective umbrella of the project.

Surviving despite odds

He managed to survive a fierce attack by a tigress,but the law will not spare him for killing one of her cubs.

Jamuda, a teenage goatherd, was searching for his lost goat in the forests at the foothills near Manda, when he came face to face with a tigress and her two cubs. Suspecting that his goat had been devoured by the tigress, Jamuda killed one of its cubs with a stone and, quite naturally, was attacked by the mother.

He was later admitted to the community health centre at Manda with serious injuries in his left hand, head and both legs.

After receiving information about Jamuda's misadventure, the Besoi forest range officials rushed to the spot and recovered the dead cub. A case will be registered against Jamuda under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, forest officials said.

US scientists clone first male mouse

Scientists of the University of Hawaii in US have cloned the first male mouse from the tail tip cells of an adult mouse, reports a science journal, Nature Genetics.

Biologists Teruhiko Wakayama and Ryuzu Yanagimachi and theircolleagues, who cloned the mouse nicknamed `Fibro' from fibroplast, the type of cell from which it was derived, have demonstrated that cloning from adult cells is not restricted to female reproductive cells, said researchers writing in the journal.

Earlier clones--sheep, cows, mice--have all been females.

2,700-year-old tombs found in China

Archaeologists have stumbled upon 300 ancient tombs dating back to the eastern Zhou dynasty (770-256 BC) in the Xiaochang county of central China's Hubei province.

The tombs cover an area of 5.3 square kilometers and they are only 300 metres away from Caodianfang, a city ruins of the same historical period, reports Xinhua news agency.

An archaeologist said the tomb area was the graveyard for the ancient city. ``The tombs have three chamber patterns: oblong, square and echelon,'' he said, adding more than 2,000 pieces of cultural relics have been unearthed, including pottery cooking vessels and also kettles, jars and cups.Swords, daggers and arrowheadsmade of bronze were also discovered, the expert said, and added, ``The find will provide valuable clues for the study of cultural development in the area.''

Treatment to flush out HIV?

A special therapy might flush the AIDS virus out of a safe haven in the body, scientists say, but they stress that it's too soon to tell.

Their work is presented in the June issue of the journal, Naturemedicine. AP reported the results last November, when they were presented at a scientific meeting.

Treatment for HIV infection can drive the virus down to undetectable levels in the blood. But HIV can still hide in some inactive blood cells called T cells. The new work was aimed at activating these cells so HIV would emerge, the cells would die, and the new HIV stymied by standard drugs.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health reported on 14 patients getting standard HIV treatment plus the cell-stimulator, Interleukin-2. No HIV could be recovered from the T-cells in three of these patients, or in thelymph node tissue from two of these three.

Researchers cautioned that HIV might still be hiding elsewhere in the body.